What is a good rooster?

[Hopeful homesteader]

What behaviors are ideal in a rooster and what age should I be able to recognize bad behavior? I currently have 10 roosters to choose from and only plan to keep 1. 1 cockerel is 10 weeks old and the other 9 are 4 weeks old (they were supposed to be pullets from tractor supply) and originally we were just going to keep the oldest one but now that we have so many boys, we've decided to wait and keep the best of the bunch but aside from aggressive behavior, Idk what else I should be looking for. The younger chick are currently in a separated pen for look but no touch introduction but overall it's been uneventful. I did see the 10 week old roo trying to mount a pullet for the first time yesterday, he wasn't being rough at all and the pullet didn't fight him either, just laid down for all of 3 seconds and he jumped off and they went about pecking the grass. He's very mild tempered now but I know that can change as he matures, doesn't want us to touch him but he'll run up to us as if to greet us and is great about warning the girls of potential threats and he only crows once in the morning so far, he's a speckled sussex btw. The other breeds of boys are dark brahma, welsummer, and I believe the 3rd is golden laced wyandotte but I'm not 100% sure on the 3rd yet. I only have 4 confirmed pullets but we'll be expanding to at least 20-24 pullets/hens and just 1 rooster, possibly 2 in the future but I'm more focused on getting more females for now and making housing arrangements for all the boys while I figure out who to keep. Any advice is welcome.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

What do you want from your rooster?
Breeding? Choose the prettiest.
Protection? Choose the bravest.

 

[Skyle]

If you have standard sized hens (so no very large ones) don't choose the Brahma. Brahma roosters are usually gentle and friendly but he will become very large and if you have hens of smaller breeds he can injury them with his weight while mating. Same thing if you have bantams, don't choose a rooster much larger than the smaller hen you have.
Other than this, it's a bit hard to see at such a young age since the hormones (except for the 10 weeks old, but as you said he may change) are not kicking out yet.
Then it all depends on the purpose of the rooster. Protect the girls? Fertile eggs? Just for his beauty or as a pet?
I'd advise you to pay a lot of attention on the roos that are fearless of humans, sometimes they became really aggressive because of this.

 

[DobieLover]

The traits your oldest cockerel are currently exhibiting are what you are looking for.
No aggression towards you and keeping his distance from you.
Being gentle with the girls.
Alerting if he sees potential danger.

Try offering him a few treats and see what he does. He's very young but ultimately a good rooster gives nearly all the treats to his girls and only takes a few for himself.

My rooster will be off the roost nearly first and herd his girls around when they come down.
He will go get stragglers when it's time to head to roost at night.
I have seen him break up nastier fights between girls.
He stands watch when his girls are dust or sun bathing.
He puts himself between the girls and any potential danger when they are dozing under their large Quince bush during the day.
He waits until nearly all his girls are roosted before taking his dust bath at the end of the day.
He is exceedingly protective of his chicks and has helped feed them.
Ironically, he started off his stellar rooster career flogging me for doing a large construction project in his territory. We are fine now as I worked to rehabilitate his attitude that I'm actually not a threat. I personally felt this was a good trait. It's been a very long time since he's tried to flog me. It was MY behavior that drew this out, not anything he was doing wrong.

I personally much prefer a male that is raised among older birds. They are more stable and have learned so much from the rest of the flock they just make better flock leaders.
One of the fundamental problems with trying to determine which male will work the best is the presence of other males. When there is a dominant bird around, the other boys will not always behave the way they would if they were leading the flock.

You need to be cautious if your cockerel saunters up to you picking up random objects from the ground and dropping them while keeping one eye on you. He's trying to get close for a potential attack. I always march right into the pen with the food and go directly to the rooster to give the food to him to give to his girls. You do not want to appear as a threat to his flock. He is their leader, protector and provider. Any threats to that status must be defended against.

 

[Hopeful homesteader]

What do you want from your rooster?
Breeding? Choose the prettiest.
Protection? Choose the bravest.

Protection is my main thing, I would like to breed eventually but I'm not considering it any time soon. Pretty is always a bonus but not necessary, I just don't want one that would attack me or my kids or he's out of here.

 

[PippinTheChicken]

I'd wait a few more weeks. Around 16-20wks they'll start crowing and you'll be able to see their true personalities

 

[theoldchick]

My perfect rooster is one who looks good and is polite to me and his ladies.

 

[Hopeful homesteader]

The traits your oldest cockerel are currently exhibiting are what you are looking for.
No aggression towards you and keeping his distance from you.
Being gentle with the girls.
Alerting if he sees potential danger.

Try offering him a few treats and see what he does. He's very young but ultimately a good rooster gives nearly all the treats to his girls and only takes a few for himself.

My rooster will be off the roost nearly first and herd his girls around when they come down.
He will go get stragglers when it's time to head to roost at night.
I have seen him break up nastier fights between girls.
He stands watch when his girls are dust or sun bathing.
He puts himself between the girls and any potential danger when they are dozing under their large Quince bush during the day.
He waits until nearly all his girls are roosted before taking his dust bath at the end of the day.
He is exceedingly protective of his chicks and has helped feed them.
Ironically, he started off his stellar rooster career flogging me for doing a large construction project in his territory. We are fine now as I worked to rehabilitate his attitude that I'm actually not a threat. I personally felt this was a good trait. It's been a very long time since he's tried to flog me. It was MY behavior that drew this out, not anything he was doing wrong.

I personally much prefer a male that is raised among older birds. They are more stable and have learned so much from the rest of the flock they just make better flock leaders.
One of the fundamental problems with trying to determine which male will work the best is the presence of other males. When there is a dominant bird around, the other boys will not always behave the way they would if they were leading the flock.

You need to be cautious if your cockerel saunters up to you picking up random objects from the ground and dropping them while keeping one eye on you. He's trying to get close for a potential attack. I always march right into the pen with the food and go directly to the rooster to give the food to him to give to his girls. You do not want to appear as a threat to his flock. He is their leader, protector and provider. Any threats to that status must be defended against.

I'm not sure what he does with treats, last time I offered he was being greedy but that was at maybe 7 week's old so I'll have to watch and see cause idk if it's changed. I have thrown weeds and frozen home made baby food in recently and he seems to circle before joining them. He's not really eyeing me but comes running over with all the pullets when I come out and then go back to their chicken business or when I'm refilling the food and water. They're all off the roost when I come out to open the door at 6 am, he crows at 5:30 so I'm not sure when everyone gets down between then but sometimes I through the window he's still up there alone and the girls run out first. Half the time 1 girl will still be inside when he comes out but she never takes long. With dirt bathing, he usually joins them about halfway through, they seem to start at different times, when the first girl is finished he's starting so theirs always 1 on watch and he's quick to stop and jump out if he thinks there's a threat while the others continue. I'll keep an eye out for more now that you've mentioned it.

 

[Salixx]

I am not an expert by any means, I don’t have any adult birds.

With that said, I’ve spent a lot of time reading, watching you tube and sitting with my birds. I also have way too many boys and have to make some cuts soon.

First and foremost, aggression towards me. It’s an automatic no, with some caveats. I have three 6 week old GLW cockerels. I want to keep one as I have 10 pullets and wanted a dual purpose flock. Unfortunately, all three and even a pullet have been very standoffish with me and pecked at me aggressively. I am hoping it is fear aggression - I did not handle or interact with them much until now. I’m working on handling them now and getting them more used to me. The behavior has lessened, we’ll see in about a month or so how they are. If it continues, I’ll cull all three. I have two other cockerels at 16 weeks that are nice boys, just not as big as the Wyandottes but they’re still large enough to make a chicken dinner.

Second but just as important to me is how they treat the girls. This takes longer to discern and can be complicated due to their social hierarchy. Remove one jerk and another may become a jerk in his place. I’ll see how that goes this weekend. Another of my 16week cockerels was aggressive to me in the past and is forceful with girls and I’m planning on culling him this weekend as I’m tired of him forcing himself on the pullets.

Some other things important to me (in no particular order).

Can I handle them? It’s okay if they don’t want to be touched, but are they calm once I have them?

Size: Are they big? Will they potentially also father larger offspring for the dinner table?

Are they alert and good at sounding the alarm for predators?

Do the girls like them?

What does my gut say? Our “gut” often reads subtle cues in behavior in our subconscious that our conscious mind isn’t as privy to. “Follow your gut” is really “follow your basal instincts.”

We’ll see how it goes, but those are the things I am thinking about as I am choosing which boys to keep, to try to rehome or to cull.

I also want to point out that I have bantams as well. They are pets and the above criteria don’t apply nearly as much to them. Aggression won’t be tolerated, either to me or the girls, but otherwise my choices are based purely on friendliness and who I’m attached to.

 

[CoconutCoffee]

Bumping an older thread as I've been thinking more about my roosters and their behaviors.

My oldest i think is great. He built nests when his girls were coming into lay (all same age and he wasn't overzealous with them), calls for treats and girls get the most, stands watch, etc. Most importantly I witnessed him run towards a dog after alerting the hens who took off in the opposite direction.

His son hasn't had to face a predator that I've witnessed but he does much of the same. I dont like that he chases his flock around first thing in the morning though. Always assumed this was normal but not sure its a good sign? Its like he has to reassert his dominance first thing in the morning. I've seen hens willingly squat for him and his dad (they're in separate pens) though. He goes into the coop first while calling his hens too. Theres younger birds with him with no hens and he does nothing to break up squabbling. Specifically from the cockerels. Does he just not see them as "his" yet? As they're not breeding age?